Steven Chuang, Co-founder & CEO of Cherri Tech (Taiwan)

First off, we’d like to thank TIEC for connecting Cherri Tech to Founders Space Program. TIEC is the top-tier accelerator that bridges Taiwan-based startups that are planning to expand into the US market.

I’m the CEO of Cherri Tech, Inc. Our product TapPay is an SDK that allows developers to utilize our patented high-frequency sound wave technology for financial transactions that are turnkey and device agnostic. In short, we are the Apple/Android Pay that works across all credit card terminals. Yes, that means your 7-year old smartphone can be used for mobile payments.

Currently, we are partnered with Taiwan’s 7 largest banks and processing 7,000+ transactions weekly. We’ve built partnerships and integrations with other prominent payment companies such as Stripe, Square, and Paypal. Our huge potential to penetrate the US market, company traction, and domain expertise provided the persuasion necessary to be accepted into Founders Space.

Founders Space provided the launch pad, tools, and network for Cherri Tech to build foundation for launching our business. Our mentors, Steven Hoffman and Steve Austin are awesome and helped us convert conceptual knowledge into practical knowledge. Founders Space provided the platform to meet mentors from several professional backgrounds such as investors, designers, accountants, lawyers, and many more.

After our learnings from the program, we were able to apply them to building our business. We were able to close a partnership deal with Stripe and SVB (Silicon Valley Bank). The skills we learned form Founders Space allowed us to meet executives at Square, AME Ventures, PayPal, and many others – who provided constructive feedback and showed interest in embedding our SDK. There was a great feedback loop between the mentors at Founders Space and the operational day-to-day at Cherri Tech.

Last but not least, the relationships made from the Founders Space program are priceless. There’s a saying that ‘people connect people’, and I truly felt Founders Space provided the platform for success. If you are looking to break into the US Market, Founders Space is invaluable!